Category Archives: DIY

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So you remember these, right? They were so easy to make that I wanted to share, because I have always wanted to use transfer paper, but have never had the guts to see how it would turn out. These are … Continue reading →

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I have a super duper easy project to share with you guys today. It took me only a few minutes to make (if you don’t count waiting for paint to dry) and it was all made with things I had … Continue reading →

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If anyone’s looking for a last minute end of the school year gift for that special teacher your kids had this year, this one is so simple to whip up but it won’t look like you saved it for the last minute. Everyone wins.

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I apologize for lack of pictures. This always happens on party day. I get so distracted trying to keep the pizza sauce out of my carpet and the ice cream sandwiches out of the bathroom, that my camera gets sorely neglected.

I did have fun throwing this party though. It was just the right mixture of easy and detailed. And it was a hit with the kids and adults.

Here’s the details of the party: I made ninja turtle balloons by wrapping streamers around a green balloon. So simple and the boys thought it was so cool 🙂 Then I made a quick streamer wall and hung a ninja turtle banner. I know, big on the décor this year, ha ha.

I made the ninja turtle cakes myself. Will do a fondant tutorial later this week if anyone is interested. Once again, super simple. That’s my motto, after all.

I had some games planned, and even some face painting, but the kids were playing so well that all that got used were the coloring pages and wordsearches I printed out.

I made breadsticks and cut up apples slices, then bought some Costco pizzas and some green “ooze” punch. Of course, didn’t get pictures of any of that.

I wish I could do a ninja turtle party every year because it required so little effort on my part. If you want to throw a TMNT party, this is the way to go!

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Some people may say that this is too much, and that this Peter Pan thing has gone on too long. But, I am in love with my baby’s nursery. Well, he’s not so much a baby anymore, but hopefully it’s something he can grow with for a little bit.

This is my rocking corner.

I got these illustrations from this book. I cut them out (gasp!) and put them in 8×8 frames from Michael’s. I love that they seem to glow and that the yellow walls brings the yellow out in them.
This is Big Ben Corner. I got the Big Ben canvas from KMart clearance, the star from Ross, and the vinyl from my very talented friend Jamie at Vinyl Decor N More. She also did the vinyl for the Second Star On The Right sign above the dresser.This is my “dreams” wall. I wanted this room to be playful, and whimsical, and to encourage the imagination. I made the pennant banner out of tulle and scrapbook paper. I made the clouds out of cardstock and taped them on the wall. The sign is more of that bunk bed wood nailed together and painted a blue/green. I got a silver paint pen and just free handed the quote on it.

I designed this changing table for my last baby. I thrifted the changing table for $10. I painted it off white and then modpodged scrapbook paper diamonds on to get the argyle look.

I think I want to sleep in here more than my baby!

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Do you remember playing with Gak growing up? I loved that stuff! My kids are all about the turtle ooze right now and so I figured we would try to make our own slime. All you need is liquid starch, clear glue, food coloring and plastic ziplock baggies.

You use equal parts of starch and glue, so however much you would like to use is fine. I used 1/4 cup starch and 1/4 cups glue.

You will add 3 drops of food coloring to the starch before you add the glue to it.

Then you add the glue and let the kids squish the bag around for at least 5 minutes. The longer the better if you can keep them from splitting open the bag 🙂

Which is what Riley did right here…split his bag right open. So we continued the squish with our bare hands.

When it’s a good enough blob for you, take it out and just throw away the leftover bits and drips in the bag. Then squish more or play.

We had to add some glue to a couple of them and starch to one, just to get the consistency we wanted. Just go on a blob by blob basis.

Store your slime in air tight containers. Unfortunately, the slime will get really sticky within 3-7 days, so make sure to watch it carefully, this stuff won’t last forever. But the slime was so much fun!

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I love how Paper Coterie seems to always know just what I need for my free download each month. These are the cutest spring printables I’ve seen and they are so HAPPY and OPTIMISTIC that I think they could stay up all year! Enjoy your free download from Paper Coterie!

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First off, I have to explain something about how we decorate our bedroom. My husband has this thing, that I assume comes from growing up in California, that you don’t hang items on the wall above the head of your bed. If you do, and there’s an earthquake, it won’t be pretty. So…I had to get creative with this house so it wasn’t just a blank wall behind our bed. Thus, the chevron wall was born.

I wanted to have detail without needing to hang something on the wall and I am so happy with how it turned out!

I have to admit that I was painting this wall with two kids clamoring around my feet so I didn’t measure anything and didn’t take pictures while I was doing it. But it’s simple. Get the fat painters tape and tape vertical lines down your wall to section it. Then tape diagonal lines in between the vertical lines to get the chevron effect. I put a little piece of tape on the sections I wanted gray and left the ones I wanted yellow blank. Then I just rolled on the paint and removed the tape. Walla! A chevron wall!

I was going to take pictures of the rest of our room but it’s not that cool. 🙂 I will share some printables that I have in our room if you care to duplicate them.

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I remember making ice cream like this when I was in elementary school. When I told the boys about it, they really wanted to try it. I saved it for spring break so we could break up the long days and it was so fun! The boys think they are so cool now that they can make their own ice cream. Well, shake their own ice cream.

You need:

2 different sizes of baggies (I used gallon and snack size)

2 cups of half n half

4 tsp vanilla

4 Tb sugar

Ice

Salt

First you mix together the half n half, vanilla, and sugar. Then you put it in the smaller bag/bags. I used smaller snack bags so the boys could all have their own equally portioned bag. You can put all of it in a quart sized bag.

Then you put the ice and salt into the gallon bag, then place your smaller bag inside and seal the gallon sized bag.

Then you shake….

And shake….

And shake….

You shake for about 20 minutes. Technically, it was more milkshake consistency than solid ice cream, but the kids still loved it and they were even more happy to use a straw than a cup. You should try to make some, I mean, look at these happy faces 🙂

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I first saw this sign here….and all over Pinterest. I usually like to have things in my home that are original, but I couldn’t get past this sign. And neither could my husband, which is rare! He really wanted me to make this sign. So, I did.

When we moved into our new home, there were parts of a bed in the backyard. My husband was about to throw it all away and I surprised him by saying we should save it and make stuff out of it. While he wasn’t too optimistic about the “stuff” I would make out if it, he obliged. I know a lot of people use pallet wood, we use bed wood. I used these stencils and I loved them. I traced the words onto the wood with pencil first and then painted it in after.

This is my new favorite wall in the house. I know it still looks a little bare (we are working on buying/building a bench for right underneath the sign) but I love walking into my home and seeing this sign and I think this will be our family motto for years to come.